At this stage, all I’ve seen is this summary (A BIPARTISAN PLAN TO REDUCE OUR NATIONS DEFICITS v7), so I reserve the right to modify my analysis as more details emerge (and since I fully expect the plan to look worse when additional information is available, the following is an optimistic assessment.

The Good

o Unlike President Obama, the Gang of Six is not consumed by class-warfare resentment. The plan envisions that the top personal income tax rate will fall to no higher than 29 percent.

o There is no Medicare reform, just tinkering and adjustments to the current system.

o There in no Medicaid reform, just tinkering and adjustments to the current system.

The Ugly

o The entire package is based on dishonest Washington budget math. Spending increases under the plan, but the politicians claim to be cutting spending because the budget didn’t grow even faster.

o Speaking of spending, why is there no information, anywhere in the summary document, showing how big government will be five years from now? Ten years from now? The perhaps-all-too-convenient absence of this critical information should set off alarm bells.

o There’s a back-door scheme to change the consumer price index in such a way as to reduce expenditures (i.e., smaller cost-of-living-adjustments) and increase tax revenue (i.e., smaller adjustments in tax brackets and personal exemptions). The current CPI may be flawed, but it would be far better to give the Bureau of Labor Statistics further authority, if necessary, to make changes. A politically imposed change seems like nothing more than a ruse to impose a hidden tax hike.

o A requirement that the internal revenue code maintain the existing bias against investors, entrepreneurs, small business owners, and other upper-income taxpayers. This “progressivity” mandate implies very bad things for the double taxation of dividends and capital gains.

This quick analysis leaves many questions unanswered. I particularly look forward to getting information on the following:

2. What does it mean to promise Social Security reform “if and only if the comprehensive deficit reduction bill has already received 60 votes.” Who defines reform? And why does the reform have to focus on “75-year” solvency, apparently to the exclusion of giving younger workers access to a better and more stable system?

[…] So what’s my gripe? $500 billion in immediate cuts is chump change. Future cuts are to be identified – right. The plan is vague and all the pain happens in the future, when it’s someone else’s problem. And of course, it does not deal with entitlement programs. For a more thorough analysis by someone smarter than me, read Dan Mitchell’s analysis, here. […]

[…] Tax increases, a ridiculously modest cut to spending (below what the “one-time” stimulus payment now factored into every budget has already added), no real reform of any kind, and promises to cut more in exchange for permission to grant yourself $2.5 trillion in new spending. Yeah, that’ll fix shit! […]

I know this might seem like an unimportant issue to most. . but I don’t have a problem with the “cap” of 29% on the upper income, but as a rule, most in the highest income “bracket” pay a far smaller percentage than I do. I’d like to see you get them to pay their “fair share”, as well as eliminating these incredible “loopholes” that allow the likes of GE, Boeing, and other multi-billion dollar corporations, to pay virtually no taxes, and to even get “refunds” on taxes they never paid. . This is corporate “welfare” and needs to be eliminated as well. . I just don’t see any of the people getting it done. . They are “owned” by their corporate “sponsors” and do not represent the people who vote for them. . Check the voting records and you’ll see this is indeed a correct statement. .

I am always entertained by people who want to tax “evil” businesses. People who can’t seem to pull together the concepts that businesses charge customers a price that covers the cost of making or supplying goods or services INCLUDING TAXES.

We could in theory, tax business at a sufficiently high rate so that personal income tax would not be needed. In this case we would effectively have a sales tax.

Perhaps if we did do that people would realize that businesses dont pay taxes, only people pay taxes.

Same old shit, we need to get rid of any rinos who vote for anything other than NO DEBT CEILING INCREASE!!!! When I run out of money I don’t spend, these jackals in washington need to get their heads out of their asses and LISTEN to the American citizens who have to pay the damn bill!!!

wow you people are morons
seriosuly calling gops rino cause they are not tea baggers

u realize that people dont trust tea bagggers more than gops and dems and way less than obama

remember the debt is 93% reagan bush1 bush2
wars irrisponsible taxcuts for “job creators”
yeah bushes tax cuts worked in 2007-2009 when they cut jobs or now when they are just hold the money
yall went on a spending spreee and it FAILED and when dems once again have to clean up your mess u claim
ohh the debt the debt

the ceiling was raised 12 times for ronny and 7 times for el busho

you ever wont why obama kicks your asses in debates
cause all you have are weak talking point

cut defense budget to 1999 levels
all tax loopholes gone
ss cap above 200 thou
subsidies gone for billionaires
high end taxes back up to clinton era( when we had a surplus)

your cutting in states have gained you
the most unpopular govs
ohio fla wisc penn mich

oh and to the bagger who thinks anyone who is agaiinst you is not american?
thats is exactally why you will never be in the majority

What’s this utter crap about Obama being “consumed by class-war resentment?” It’s the ultra-rich far-right, such as the oil-fueled Koch brothers and their wholly owned Tea Party, who declared class war on all of us.

This plan is touted to increase a trillion of revenue. All;that is revealed is that rates will be reduced for indioviduals and coprations. The only counterbalancing factors are to reduce deductions for mortgage interest and they like–which will hit the middle class–while the fat cats will have a net saving on their new 29–or–25 rates. Does anyone have any idea where this 1 trillion comes from–and from whom?

another piece of crap that will screw the little guy………fix the borders, don’t allow non americans to grab benefits, get rid of corruption in current entitlements,,,,,,,go to a straight percentage tax with no loopholes for anyone. vote everyone out of congress, start over with term limits…impeach obama, get rid of the fed. that should cover it….

[…] why I’m going after Senator Conrad. Is it because I’m upset that he has played a key role in tricking some gullible Republicans into supporting tax increases, based on a laughably vague set of talking […]

[…] of means-testing and price controls. Now, take a wild guess at which approach was adopted by the Gang of Six and the Simpson-Bowles fiscal commission, plans that often are cited as providing a framework for a […]